The present invention relates to water supply systems for fowl or small animals. More specifically the field of the invention is that of hangers for suspending an elongate water dispensing assembly.
The proper provision of water is essential for safe and efficient nurturing of fowl and small animals, for example in raising chickens. The proper amount of water is critical to develop the chickens quickly for consumption, and is at least as important as food. Water is important in terms of cost because chickens receiving more water consume less food. In addition to the chickens needing water to grow, water can provide other benefits, for example, medicine and vitamins can be added to provide the chickens beneficial nutrients. However, problems with the water supply can adversely affect the chickens. Leakage in the water supply system can foster bacteria growth and infection, and left unchecked can flood the hen house and drown the chickens. Therefore, water accumulating on the floors of the hen house should be avoided.
To accommodate the desire for better water supply, water supply systems exist which include a horizontal supply conduit having dispensers with a housing and a valve clamped to the conduit. These prior art systems utilize plastic bodies and metal parts commonly formed by machining. The machined parts of the valve can wear and an effect of that wear is that the rate of liquid flow through the valve increases, to the point the flow is in excess of what the chicken can ingest. If too much water is dispensed in each valve opening, then the excess water can wet the chicken and wet the litter which fosters bacteria and mold and thereby endangers their lives. The aforementioned wear necessitates replacement or removal of the valves of water supply systems.
A watering system described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,284,036, 4,491,088, 4,589,373, and 4,637,345 solves many of the aforementioned problems, and each of these patents is expressly incorporated by reference herein. Referring to FIG. 7, the valve 10 has a tubular body 12 with a tapered lower bore 14. Valve 10 is sealed by a pin 16 having a head 18 resting its lower surface 20 on a rubber cup 22 inside the valve 10. A metal ball 24 sets on the head 18, and three ring seal 26 is formed by head 18 abutting cup 22 and ball 24 abutting two seats 28 of cup 22. Ball 24 is unseated by tilting pin 16 and moving it out of axial alignment with body 12, so that the head lower surface 20 rests only on a small portion of cup 22, and ball 24 is raised to move it out of engagement with seats 28. Only a small amount of water is able to flow through the restricted gaps between ball 24 and cup 22 when pin 16 is tilted, and the droplet so formed flows along pin 16 to its bottom end 30. Pin 16 is a shiny metallic element which attracts the attention of chickens. Normally, a chicken moves pin 16 with its beak, and valve 10 lets a small droplet of water pass so that the chicken can easily consume the droplet as it flows down pin 16.
Valve 10 is mounted on the underside of conduit 32 at predetermined points. Annular flange 34 extends from body 12 and receives 0-ring 36 which seals valve 10 to the conduit 32. A lateral projection 38 has a shank 40 with a hook 42 for attaching over a part of an integral section of conduit 32. The conduit 32 is attached to the underside of a ballast pipe 44 by a wrap connector 46 which is sonically welded to the conduit 32. Ballast pipe 44 may be any rigid elongate member, such as a galvanized steel pipe. As depicted in FIG. 2, wrap connector 46 is bolted to ballast pipe 44 and thus holds conduit 32 in spaced relation below. Fingers 48 at the top of wrap connector 46 are used to hold an electrically conductive cable. In FIG. 3, wrap connector 46 is shown disassembled into upper portion 50 and lower portion 52. Lower portion 52 has a hook 54 on one side for locking with slot 56 of upper portion 50. Bolt 58 extends through each portion 50 and 52 on the opposite side of slot 56 and hook 54, and is threadably engaged by nut 60 to couple upper and lower portions 50 and 52. Upper portion 50 also has notches 62 on the peripheral wall 64, with a total of four notches 62 positioned equiangularly around the circumference of wall 64.
To assemble the prior art system, a plurality of water conduit segments is cut to predetermined lengths so that their associated wrap connectors will be located at a position corresponding to a flexible line of a suspension system. Next, for each conduit segment a section of ballast pipe is set on semicircular top surface 66 and upper portion 50 is positioned so that hook 54 extends into slot 56. Pivoting on the hook and slot connection, upper portion 50 is moved to locate semicircular bottom surface 68 adjacent to the ballast pipe section, with bolt 58 being threaded with nut 60 and tightened to clamp firmly the wrap connector to the ballast pipe section. After assembling each conduit and ballast pipe pair, the resulting plurality of assemblies is coupled together sequentially to form an elongate water supply assembly.
To hang the water supply assembly, flexible lines of the suspension system are attached through notches 62. A U-hook (not shown) may be used to attach wrap connector 46 to a flexible line, although the flexible lines can also extend through notches 62. The U-hook is attached to wrap connector 46 by its ends extending through notches 62, and the flexible lines are then conveniently tied to the U-hook. After suspending the water supply assembly, some valves 10 may not be perfectly vertical and hence leak. To correct the leaks, each wrap connector 46 must be individually loosened and either the conduit 32 or ballast pipe 44 twisted until the valve 10 is perfectly vertical. Often, several adjustments must be made to stop all the leaking. The checking and adjusting of the water supply assembly requires additional time to install, and the resulting system is inherently less reliable. What is needed in the art is a poultry watering system which can be more easily installed.